BP, oil industry react to spill

In the wake of the Gulf Coast oil spill, BP’s lobbyists are focused on keeping lawmakers and the White House up-to-date with the latest information while the oil industry’s trade group is the one telling Congress: don’t do anything hasty.

“Until we know the facts, it’s premature to jump to a conclusion,” American Petroleum Institute president Jack Gerard told POLITICO, referring to a spate of upcoming congressional hearings about the spill.

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Gerard is reminding lawmakers that the country still runs predominately on oil and natural gas, which produces 60 percent of the nation’s energy – so Congress shouldn’t make any major regulatory changes until the cause of this spill is determined.

“While the conversation has clearly changed, the energy reality has not,” Gerard said.

The industry, he said, has formed two task forces on equipment and operating practices to complement the work of an offshore drilling safety review panel formed last week by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

BP officials have about a half dozen lobbying firms representing them, including Arnold & Porter and the Podesta and Duberstein groups. The company is a major political player having spent almost $16 million lobbying last year and $3.5 million lobbying this year before the spill. It also gave more than $500,000 last election cycle with a 60-40 split between the parties that benefited Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a government watchdog group.

But right now, BP’s team of more than 35 lobbyists is busy giving real-time updates to coastal state lawmakers, relevant congressional committees and the Obama administration as decision makers try to track the epic leak that is spilling 200,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf waters every day.

BP’s in-house lobbyists and consultants met on Monday to determine how best to continue answering the deluge of questions coming from government officials, lobbyists said.

“There’s no secret government relations plan to win over the Hill,” one BP lobbyist said. “It’s trying to deal with an hourly phone call from some subcommittee.”

Three House committees have scheduled hearings into the spill and three Democratic senators have introduced legislation raising liability caps on oil companies from $75 million to $10 billion.

“They’re going to try to limit their exposure on liability, but they’re not going to try to do that right now,” said Tyson Slocum of the watchdog group Public Citizen. “Right now, they’ll try to be the good choir boy and dutifully try to do everything they can and try to figure out what to do when the dust settles, when the oil settles.”

Lawmakers can call BP officials to testify, “but they can’t testify about what they don’t know,” said a BP lobbyist, noting that it’s still unclear how the catastrophe occurred.

To help get its message out, BP has leaned on its longtime public relations firm, the Brunswick Group. The Washington office’s role was expanded last week as the firm works the crisis from D.C., London and the Gulf Coast.

“BP Group CEO Tony Hayward is in regular contact with officials in Washington to ensure close cooperation. From the very beginning Hayward has been clear to everyone that BP’s entire focus is on stopping the flow of oil, mitigating the impact and keeping the public informed,” Brunswick’s Su-Lin Nichols said in an email to POLITICO.